>Nearly 2,000 years ago, there was a fellow named Thomas Edison. We've>decided to review the many texts about him to discover the "historical>Edison." Our conclusions:>>1. Edison couldn't have been a close personal friend of Henry Ford. It's>far too unlikely that two men of such stature would have known each>other. It's a common literary tradition to link great figures who in>reality never met. This friendship was a literary creation of Edison's>followers.>>2. Edison obviously didn't have hundreds of inventions and patents. He>probably had one or two good inventions, and it then became a literary>tradition to ascribe good inventions to him. Edison's followers obviously>encouraged this, because it increased their power base.>>3. Edison was not "hard of hearing" or "deaf." This is a melo-dramatic>touch added by a later redactor or editor of the Edison story. The irony>is too great, that a deaf man invented the modern phonograph record. This>is clearly a literary touch added at a later date to increase the>dramatic effect of Edison's inventiveness.>>4. Having established that Edison was not deaf, it is clear that the>story about how he lost his hearing (being thrown from a moving train) is>also a pure fiction. This must have been added at a very late date by the>last generation of redactors/editors.>